by James hmv London, 07/04/2014Bio"Like the legend of the Phoenix, I've just eaten a whole packet of chocolate HobNobs..."
Editor, hmv.com

"We had to call the police... it got pretty crazy!" hmv.com talks to The Vamps

Teenage sensations The Vamps are finally releasing their debut album Meet The Vamps on April 14th. We caught up with Connor Ball last week to talk about working on the album, their plans for 2014 and their career highlights so far...

So, a week to go until the album is released, can you sum up how you’re feeling right now?

I think we’re all very nervous, we have a third single coming out the week before so we’ll see how that goes, we’re kind of keeping an eye on the pre-orders at the moment! So we’re kind of nervous ‘cause it’s our first album but obviously we’re all really excited for it to come out as well. From then on we can include more songs in our live set so we’re looking forward to that.

You’ve been working on the album for a while now haven’t you?

Ages, yeah! I mean, there are songs on there that James had written when it was just him and Brad, so there are some songs that go quite a way back! It’s been really cool working on it, but yeah, it’s taken about three years all in all I guess. We had so many songs in the end it just took us a long while to narrow it down.

Was it just a case of wanting to make sure it was right, not rushing it?

Yeah, definitely, I mean we’ve all kind of grown to love the songs and with some it was like we knew we were going to put them on the album, so it was just kind of selecting the right songs that took time, but it’s been really cool, we’ve enjoyed the process a lot.

Is there a main songwriter or do you all contribute?

We all love to get involved, you know? On the tour bus, wherever, we’ve been writing as we go along, we’re basically writing stuff for the second album already, so we’re pretty prepared! But we all like to get involved, we all really love to write.

Can you talk us through the producers on the record? You’ve got a few different people working on it haven’t you?

We have a load of different producers! We haven’t done it with just one, so we’ve done a few tracks with Jay Reynolds at his studio in London, we’ve been to New York working with Espionage, then we’ve been to L.A. to record some stuff there, loads of different places. We’ve been working with lots of different writers as well, so it’s been really fun putting it together. We can’t seem to stay in one place!

Have you got any special guests on the album? You did a track with Bruno Mars didn’t you?

Well, our first single ‘Can We Dance’ was co-written with Bruno but it’s not going to be on the album actually. But yeah he’s another person we’ve done some writing with, which we really enjoyed. But otherwise on the album there are no collaborations really.

Meet The VampsThe Vamps

So what are your main influences, musically speaking? We’ve read comparisons between everybody from Blink 182 to One Direction, which is a pretty broad spectrum!

Haha! Yeah, it’s different for all of us I think, I mean me and Tristan do really like Blink 182, I love Sum 41 also. Then there’s things like Bring Me The Horizon or Skrillex even, you could go as far as that. James loves Taylor Swift, Brad’s really into Foo Fighters, so there’s pop stuff and there’s indie bands, all sorts really, between us it is quite a large spectrum.

We saw you did some of the UK dates on Taylor Swift’s tour, you just finished The Wanted’s farewell tour as well didn’t you?

Yeah, that’s been really cool. I guess it’s been really emotional for them being their last tour, but it’s been great for us, it was 14 dates across the UK and it’s been really nice touring and hanging out with them, we’ve had a lot of fun doing it.

You’ve got a UK tour coming up later in the year, any other shows planned in the meantime? Any outside of the UK?

We’re doing loads actually, yeah, we’re doing a show on Monday for the Teenage Cancer Trust, which is our headline show at Shepherd’s Bush. Then we’re doing loads of festivals, we’re doing Isle of Wight, East Coast Live, I can’t remember them all of the top off my head but there’s a lot. There will be shows outside the UK, not confirmed yet but hopefully one in Spain, one in Italy…

You’ve got some pretty dedicated fans, have you had any weird experiences with them?

Er, we had to call the police in Manchester! It got pretty crazy, we had this little tour van and they surrounded it, we couldn’t move. They were banging on the windows, rocking the van, it felt like they were going to break in at any second, it was a bit scary for a minute there!

What’s been your favourite moment of your careers so far?

Well, it’s been a crazy year but I think playing our first headline show in New York was one of the really amazing moments, it was at the Gramercy Theatre in front of our own fans. That was our first headline show ever as well, so to be able to do that was really amazing, it was so much fun.

Is there anyone you’d really like to work with that you haven’t already?

I think Ed Sheeran would be awesome to work with, we’ve spoken a bit about that before and that would be really cool. Also another band I really like is All Time Low, I went to their show and they were like ‘you should write with us.’ That would be incredible!

The Vamps will be meeting fans and signing copies of Meet The Vamps at selected hmv stores in April, you can find the details here

Meet The Vamps is available in hmv stores now. You can also grab it from our download store here